


sharp and steady

by dickparty



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, lotta blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 12:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7801690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dickparty/pseuds/dickparty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a whole cake island what-if sort of au where sanji gets unlucky with big mom's roulette wheel . nami and luffy are there . spoilers he loses his arm</p>
            </blockquote>





	sharp and steady

**Author's Note:**

> if graphic depictions of violence or the loss of a limb aren't your bag then neither is this fic my pal . this may be a bit intense for some so use discretion pls

 

 

“But you’re a fighter, aren’t you?” Nami asked with her fingers curled around a steaming mug. The galley was empty, except for the two of them. It must’ve been five in the morning.

 

“I’m a cook.”

 

“Well, yeah, that’s a given, but I mean—“

 

“Fighting is important,” Sanji said, cutting her off, which was rare enough, “but we can _all_ fight. We’re all fighters. You and me and all the rest of them.”

 

Nami waited while he lit a cigarette and pushed himself up onto one of the countertops. His legs dangled. Crossed at the ankles.

 

“But only one of us is a cook. That’s more important,” he finished.

 

“Is it?”

 

“You understand better than the rest of them, don’t you?” he asked, meeting her eyes. Smoke billowed from his nose as he exhaled and waited.

 

“Do I?”

 

“Well. Without strong fighters like Luffy, and like the stupid idiot, we won’t win the fight in the end, yeah. But without you and me, we won’t even get there at all. Right?”

 

Nami broke the connection between their eyes as she looked down. Watched the swirl of the froth in her coffee. Because, actually, when he put it like that. Well, it made sense, maybe.

 

Without Nami to navigate and Sanji to feed them all, the crew wouldn’t even make it to the final stage. Wouldn’t make it to Raftel.

 

Ah.

 

Nami smiled just a bit at the dark brew held between her palms before speaking.

 

“Guess you’re right this time, Sanji-kun.”

 

She remembered him sitting there with her in the galley at the crack of dawn, making her coffee and chatting idly with tired eyes while she woke up from a nightmare she hadn’t wanted to talk about. And he hadn’t pushed it. He just made breakfast like he always did, and the conversation had gone a certain way -- they'd started talking about how he valued his hands above all else, and she remembered all these things, but especially, she remembered the way he’d smiled at her when she’d finally understood — the whole point of their random conversation. When she started to empathize rather than sympathize.

 

That was a long time ago.

 

Nami hated that the memory was flashing through her mind.

 

It made her stomach twist.

 

It made her grip the railing of the Thousand Sunny even harder as she leaned over, eyes wide, focusing as best as she could.

 

“Luffy,” she whispered next to him, their shoulders nearly touching, both of them stuck with their voices catching in their throats.

 

“He’ll be okay — he’ll be fine,” Luffy said, but his eyes wouldn’t leave the beach either.

 

They could all see him. Luffy and Nami and the rest of the crew with them — they could all see Sanji on the beach, standing tall with his expression blank, staring out at the sea, staring way, way past them. There was a large roulette wheel behind him.

 

“He could die,” Nami whispered, and she felt rather than saw Luffy stiffen.

 

“He won’t.”

 

The Thousand Sunny was fast, but it wasn’t fast _enough._

 

Sanji stood there, his arms and legs restrained at his wrists and ankles, keeping him from running very far very quickly. And when the wheel started spinning, he didn’t turn to watch. Nami could hear Big Mom laughing, far away as they were.

 

The wheel spun very slowly.

 

And when it stopped spinning, Big Mom’s laughter only grew louder.

 

“What’s it say—“ Nami started, leaning further over the railing, but her mouth snapped shut when Luffy’s opened.

 

“ _SANJI!_ ” Luffy screamed at the top of his lungs, taking another deep, rattling breath, and Nami could see Sanji’s attention shift to him.

 

Although Sanji said nothing, did nothing else in response to hearing his captain yelling his name.

 

The events unfolded in front of them while they were stuck out on the ocean, unable to do much of anything other than watch Sanji’s gaze remain locked on Luffy when Big Mom’s men grabbed him to hold him still.

 

When Big Mom’s men removed the cuffs around his wrists, Nami swore she could see his eyes get wider. He cracked a bit.

 

When Big Mom herself wrapped a giant hand around his arm, encasing it at the elbow, he started to struggle.

 

It took several men to hold him.

 

“ _SANJI!_ ” Luffy was screaming again, looking around, like there had to be another way to _get there_ faster, but god, the ship was too far away, the tide was against them, Luffy couldn’t rocket that far, couldn’t aim in time, he wouldn’t make it, they’d rushed so much and it wasn’t _enough_ , and Luffy looked over at Nami for just a second before their attention rocked back to the shoreline.

 

“ _LUFFY!”_

 

Luffy and Nami both turned their heads to see Big Mom and the grin plastered on her face. And they watched her hold him a little harder. Giant grip on his shoulder and forearm. And they watched, unblinking, as she physically wrenched Sanji’s arm from the rest of his body.

 

It was a single slow movement punctured by his scream. She twisted, pulled with both hands until it gave way at the elbow, came apart, and Sanji yelled for his captain with a voice cracked and hysterical. And then there were no more words. Only screaming. 

 

Big Mom’s laughter continued to ring out across the ocean.

 

There was no more hesitation. No more thinking after that. Luffy leapt overboard. And not a second later, Nami jumped in after him.

 

Chopper and Brook and the others on the ship yelled for them — she could hear them when her head broke the surface. But she was with Luffy, her arm wrapped tight around his ribcage, and even though he couldn’t swim, he could still speak, and his voice was pained, not like it was tired but like it was _suffering_ when he said against her, “Hurry — swim faster, Nami, hurry, _hurry—“_

 

It took a few minutes to get close enough to the coastline that their feet could touch the bottom. They both lost their shoes in the ocean. And when they got to more solid footing, Nami started _dragging_ Luffy, and he struggled to help, the both of them pulling themselves from the water onto shaking legs, feet digging into the sand as they both started running.

 

Sanji was alone. Big Mom and her crew had left him there for them.

 

He was on his back, expensive oxford heels digging deep into the sand as his knees bent and straightened and bent again, writhing, biting back screams, his shoulders pressed hard into the ground. His left hand was wrapped tight around where his forearm used to meet his elbow.

 

He was heaving. She could hear his voice in every exhale. His eyes were shut tight, teeth grit so hard, curling in on his side, folding, sand and blood everywhere, and Luffy broke ahead of Nami in their sprint.

 

Luffy got there before she could. Her legs stopped working after a few seconds.

 

She fell to her knees a few paces away from them, her arms coming to wrap around herself while she shook and watched them.

 

“ _Luffy_ ,” Sanji’s breath was ragged, his speech rocky and uneven, and Luffy grabbed him by the front of his reddening shirt and pulled him close to his chest. Sanji wouldn’t let go, where he was holding his arm. What was left of it.

 

“It’s okay,” Luffy said immediately, trying to pull him closer, and Nami could see the tears streaking Sanji’s cheeks.

 

“It’s not—“ Sanji said, she’d never heard him try to talk through so much pain, he usually fell silent, but he was starting to ramble, “Fuck, it’s not, it’s not, Luffy, _Luffy, fuck_ —“

 

“It’s just an arm.”

 

Luffy had cut him off, his voice sharp and steady. And he repeated himself again.

 

“It’s just an arm.”

 

All she could hear was the sound of Sanji hyperventilating.

 

He wouldn’t even look at her.

 

“Chopper will be here in just a minute,” she heard herself say. The words moved past her lips without her even thinking about it. Like she had to say something to cover the sound. Just the sound of him breathing like that. Breaking like that right in front of her. “He’ll make it okay. He’s. You’ll be fine, Sanji.”

 

Her voice was so quiet. Almost like she didn’t believe it herself.

 

She watched as Sanji pressed his face into Luffy’s chest, shaking so hard, legs still bending and unbending even as Luffy tried to hold him still. She watched the way he gripped his arm so tight. Where it’d been severed. His hand was entirely red. His clothes, Luffy’s clothes — everything around them was covered in it.

 

“I’m sorry,” Nami heard Sanji say quietly, like he was saying it just to Luffy, and her eyes started burning.

 

She watched Luffy squeeze his eyes shut, and she watched the fat tears roll down his cheeks as he said, “Don’t be sorry, you idiot. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

 

“My arm—“

 

“It’ll be _fine_ —“

 

“My _fucking hand, Luffy!”_ Sanji shouted suddenly, trying to pull away from him, his breathing getting harsher, and he was losing it again, starting to ramble again, a string of curses spoken to himself in a voice that sounded almost terrified, “Fuck, _fuck, shit, my fucking—“_

 

Nami had never seen Sanji shake the way he was now. And she could only watch as Luffy reached forward again and held him so damn tight, knees bent around him, sand and blood sticking to them both and covering their limbs, and she couldn’t find the words as Sanji finally started to grow quiet.

 

By the time Chopper got there, he was already barking orders through tears. Sanji was passed out. Blood loss, Chopper had said, and this was serious, Chopper had continued, sounding scared and determined all at once, and it was a good thing he had such a stock of Sanji’s blood on board, he’d added, but Nami was hardly listening to him.

 

She could only watch. The way Luffy let Chopper take Sanji from his arms. And the way Luffy just continued to sit there, staring at the patch of red sand before him. And the way Luffy eventually buried his face in his own hands. And the way his shoulders started to shake.

 


End file.
